{"id":122101,"date":"2016-04-30T10:00:32","date_gmt":"2016-04-30T08:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=122101"},"modified":"2016-04-29T18:34:10","modified_gmt":"2016-04-29T16:34:10","slug":"the-most-popular-south-african-politicians-on-twitter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/internet\/122101\/the-most-popular-south-african-politicians-on-twitter\/","title":{"rendered":"The most popular South African politicians on Twitter"},"content":{"rendered":"

eNitiate Integrated Solutions, a digital content solutions service provider, has compiled a list of \u00a0top 11 politicians in South Africa, based on their Twitter accounts.<\/p>\n

Using data from Social Bakers and Twitter Counter, eNitiate found the ‘big 3’ to be Economic Freedom Fighters leader, Julius Malema, Western Cape premier, Helen Zille, and sports minister, Fikile Mbalula, when it comes to followers on Twitter.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

“On the strength of absolute follower numbers alone, the EFF rules the Twitter roost,” eNitiate said.<\/p>\n

South Africa\u2019s President and leader of the ANC \u2013 Jacob Zuma \u2013 is 4th, while Mmusi Maimane, leader of the DA, is 5th.<\/p>\n

Two politicians \u2013 Lindiwe Mazibuko (formerly leader of DA in parliament) and Mamphela Ramphele (founder and former leader of Agang) \u2013 currently do not hold office, and their Twitter profiles do not indicate that they are part of their former or any other parties.<\/p>\n

However, their inclusion in the top 11 is based on rationale that they grew and continue to draw followers based on their historical political roles, eNitiate said.<\/p>\n

Jackson Mthembu, the newly-appointed ANC chief whip, rounds up the top 11 and leads with growth of followers in last six months.<\/p>\n

\"TwitterSA\"<\/a>On average, top 3 Twitter activities by the top 11 South African politicians are RT (37%), Replies(25%)\u00a0and plain tweets (23%).<\/p>\n

Minister Fikile Mbalula is the most prolific politician, with an average of 1 tweet every hour. In addition, the Minister posts up to 3 pictures with every ten tweets, the highest contribution of this content type in the top 11.<\/p>\n

“This is remarkable, given the time needed to take\/source and select the right pictures for posting. This is an indication that the Minister and\/or his social media team spend a fair amount of time on Twitter” eNitiate said.<\/p>\n

Helen Zille is the second most prolific politician on Twitter with 17 tweets\/day. In addition, she leads the top 11 in the contribution of Replies to her tweet volume. On average, Zille posts 7 Replies in every ten tweets.<\/p>\n

“No doubt Helen and\/or her team monitor relevant Twitter mentions closely, and we suspect her response rate is the highest in the top 11,” eNitiate said.<\/p>\n

\"TwitterSA2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

More on social media<\/h3>\n

Twitter death threats can lead to criminal investigations \u2013 police<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

How people use Twitter in South Africa<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

R150,000 fine for hate speech on social media in SA<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

eNitiate Integrated Solutions, a digital content solutions service provider, has compiled a list of top 11 politicians in South Africa, based on their Twitter accounts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":116754,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9882],"tags":[11385,26],"class_list":["post-122101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-internet","tag-enitiate","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122101"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122101\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":122149,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122101\/revisions\/122149"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}